Where in the World is Kaitou KID?
by Southpaw
Summary: KID sent his note to Shinichi this time, except that he delivered it to Ran. And what does "great world tour" mean?
1. It's Addressed to Who?

Hi everyone! It's been a while, but here is the long-awaited first chapter of my new Detective Conan fic! I'm trying something different this time – being more true to the original Japanese. This means that I'm going to attempt to use the honorific suffixes properly, and write the characters' names with the family name first, and then the given name. This fic will prove to be much longer than "House of Horrors," mostly because it spans a much longer period of time, as you will shortly find out.

I don't own Detective Conan or Magic Kaito… but wouldn't it be cool for me if I did?

Anyway, without further ado… Where in the World is Kaito Kid?

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Chapter 1: It's Addressed to Who?

It was a couple days since school had ended for the summer, and the Detective Boys were spending a relaxing day at the park. They laid on the grass, and watched the clouds go by. Some of the clouds formed recognizable shapes, but most were just blobs of fluffy whiteness. Ayumi sat up and looked at the three boys. They could tell something was bothering her, but only Conan found his voice.

"What's wrong, Ayumi-chan," he asked.

"I was just thinking about how my camp starts next week," she explained. "I'll be so busy, I won't have any time to spend with you guys."

The other boys sat up now, too, their faces showing pensive expressions. "Yeah," Genta said. "My mom said she wants to take me shopping in the next couple days for some new camp stuff…"

Ayumi smiled sweetly at Conan. "What are your plans for the summer," she asked.

Conan shrugged. "I don't know yet, but I'll probably just hang out with Ran-neechan mostly."

"That doesn't sound like much fun," Mitsuhiko observed. "My parents are sending me to computer camp…"

They sat for a while longer, reminiscing about their adventures over the last school year. Before they knew it, the day ended, and they were forced to part ways.

Shinichi left thinking about how nice it was going to be to have a little respite from the seven-year-olds. Normally, he would have seen if his usual summer job was still available, but that hadn't been an option anymore for some time now. Hanging out with his best friend was certainly the next best thing, though, despite the fact that he couldn't really be himself around her.

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When Conan returned from seeing his friends off on their first day of camp, he found Ran standing by the mailbox with a puzzled look on her face.

"What's wrong, Ran-neechan?"

She looked down at him and smiled. "It's really nothing, Conan-kun…"

"Well, I'm here if you want to talk about it… all my friends left for camp today." He knew better than to believe her, but went into the apartment anyway. He sat on the couch and waited patiently for her to come in and explain what had her all worked up.

A few minutes later, she came in. She set most of the mail down on the table to be sifted through again later, but kept one envelope in her hand. Conan managed to get a quick glance at it, only to notice that there was no stamp in the corner. He could also barely tell that the addresses of both the sender and the recipient were missing. The sender had dropped it off personally, and something seemed eerily familiar about the handwriting.

Ran sat down on the couch. Conan leaned over to get a better look at the envelope, and was about to reach out and take it from her hands, when she pulled it away. "It's not addressed to you, and anyway we don't know who it's from," she explained. "Why would they send it here? Is it possible the sender knows that the best way to get to Shinichi right now is through me? That doesn't make sense, though… because even I have trouble getting in touch with him…"

Conan stiffened at the mention of his other name. Now he _had_ to know what was in the envelope. If Ran wasn't going to let him get a good look, he'd just have to wait until later, when she'd be too exhausted to care.

The rest of the day passed quietly. Kogoro spent it the way he usually spent his days – in front of the television with a can of beer. Ran and Conan found various other ways of amusing themselves. Both of them had other things on their mind, though, not so surprisingly all related in some way to the mysterious envelope.

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Conan snuck back downstairs after he thought the other two were asleep. He discovered upon reaching the living room that he was in fact only half correct, though. Sitting by the window, silhouetted by the light of the moon, was the figure of the woman he loved. He watched her for a few seconds before remembering his real purpose for returning to the room.

Ran jumped when she heard paper rustling behind her. She turned with a knowing smirk to confirm to herself who it was. "You really want to see what's inside that envelope, don't you Conan-kun," she asked.

"Don't you?"

"It's not addressed to me."

The boy continued to search the stacks of paper on the coffee table. "Where did you put it?"

"I'm not telling, until you explain to me why you want to see it so badly." She crossed her arms across her chest.

"Didn't you think something seemed strange about the handwriting on the outside of the envelope," he asked without pausing from his task.

She didn't want to give him the satisfaction that she had noticed other weird things about it, like the light scent of flowers coming off of it. She answered his question with another – the one that was still bothering her since she first saw the object of their discussion. "Why would the sender have delivered it here?"

The boy stopped and looked up at her, not at all surprised that she was still hung up over that little detail. "I don't know," he replied, "but I'm sure Shinichi-niichan wouldn't mind much if we looked at it… We might even be able to take care of it, so that we don't have to interrupt his already busy schedule…" He watched her intently, waiting to see if that would be enough to convince her.

She looked back out the window towards the street. It would be awfully rude to open someone else's mail, but she was hungry with curiosity of what the mysterious envelope contained. After a couple minutes, she relented. She sat down at her father's desk and pulled it out of the top drawer, and then turned on the small desk lamp. Conan came over, and she pulled him up onto her lap. He blushed momentarily, until he looked down at the single phrase written across the middle of the back of the envelope.

_To: Kudo Shinichi_

When Ran picked it back up and turned it over to release the seal, Conan also caught a whiff of the flowery scent. He had nearly put one and one together, when she pulled out a piece of paper on which something was written in the same oddly familiar scrawl.

_Dear Detective, _

_On the eve of the summer solstice I will take the first honor of the leader of the Satsuma Rebellion. With its lightning strikes I will begin my great world tour._

_Kaito Kid_

Both pairs of eyes widened at the short piece of text on the page. Shinichi hadn't even needed to look at the signature to confirm his assumptions. Rather, he immediately started to try deciphering it so that he could formulate the next step to take.

Ran didn't know what to think. She did know, though, that it was getting to be too much excitement for one night. She folded the page back up and stuffed it back into the envelope. "Okay, Conan-kun, are you satisfied now?" He nodded, light from the desk lamp reflecting off his glasses. "Good, then I think it would be a good idea for you to get back to bed. We'll look at it again in the morning."

He went back to his room, even though he had no intention of going to sleep right away. Instead, he pulled out another sheet of paper and a pen, and transcribed the message, so that he could keep working on it.

After Conan wrote the riddle out again, he realized it wasn't all that difficult after all. Summer solstice referred to the longest day of the year, which hadn't come yet, so he'd have to look at the calendar to find out exactly which day it would be this year. The other part was a little more challenging. He figured "the first honor" and "lightning strikes" probably meant the object of Kid's heist would be a weapon. That made two tasks for him to complete the next day – find a calendar to see how many days he had, and find the location of the treasure. The last phrase still bothered him, though, and he went to sleep hoping that solving the rest of the riddle would help him figure it out.

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End Chapter 1

A/N: So, that's it for this installment. Chapter 2 is well underway, if not nearly complete. I don't know the last time I was this far ahead before posting… Anyway, if you haven't caught on to the story's title, I'm sure you will after the next couple chapters.


	2. Day Trip to the Museum

/bows/ Sorry everyone, I've kinda been sitting on this chapter for several days now. I wish I could think of a good excuse, but all I have is the truth – I wanted to be as far along on the next chapter when I posted this one, as I was on this chapter when I posted the first one… /ducks out of the way of flying vegetables/ Luckily, I have made quite a bit of progress on chapter 3, and it will probably be along next week.

Once again, I don't own Detective Conan or Magic Kaito… and actually I don't really own the riddles that I'm using, either – they belong to my co-author, SailorRanger, and I couldn't thank him enough for his help in both writing those, and coming up with the list of treasures.

I'd also like to thank everyone that has reviewed so far. I don't think it will ever cease to amaze me how receptive the readers of the DC fanfics are.

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Chapter 2: Day Trip to the Museum

The next morning, Conan came into the kitchen with the sheet of paper in his hand. He set it down next to his plate, and started to eat the breakfast Ran had prepared for him. She came over to the table, sat down across from him, and started on her own meal.

"What's on that page," she asked while they ate. She already had a good idea what the answer would be, but she wanted the boy to tell it to her himself.

"Huh? Oh… this… I was just thinking about that message from Kid…" he replied. He looked down at his hastily scribbled notes.

She followed his eyes back down. "You must have done a lot of thinking…"

"Some… I've almost got it figured out, actually…"

"Really?"

He nodded. "There's a couple things I need to check out to be sure what they mean, but the thing that really got me was the last phrase." He lifted his head back up, looking at her with eyes that showed a level of conviction far too mature for a seven-year-old. "What do you think 'great world tour' means?"

She thought for a few seconds, to make sure she was really comfortable voicing her suspicions. "It might mean that we're in for a much busier summer than we planned…"

"That's what I was afraid of…" Conan mulled this over in his head while he finished his breakfast. When his dish was empty, he took it over to the sink and rinsed it off, and then walked over to the calendar.

"Conan-kun…?"

"I want to see what day the solstice is, so that I know how much time we have," he said without turning around.

"Oh."

Having gathered the information he seeked, Conan came back to the table. "Would you like to go to the museum with me today, Ran-neechan?"

"What for?"

He jotted down on the page what looked to her like a date. He looked back up at her with a childish smile that soon turned quite serious again. "The solstice is on the 20th this year, which means we still have some time to make a plan before the heist. If what you said is right, that this is the first in a series of heists Kid plans on conducting, then it's probably also the only one we're gonna really have enough time to plan for a counter-attack. By going there today, it gives us something interesting to do, but it will also give us a chance to get an advance look at the scene of the crime."

Ran was so used to the boy sounding over-intelligent for his age, that his slightly long-winded explanation didn't faze her. Instead, she nodded, and then gave a smile of her own. "A trip to the museum sounds like fun. I'll go get ready!"

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To onlookers, they seemed like a brother and sister out for an enriching day at the museum. The pair knew better, though. Yes, they came to the Baker Museum partially to just wander around and look at the art exhibits like everyone else, but they were also searching for something. Neither of them were quite sure what exactly they were looking for, except that it would be one of the weapons on display from one of the historical rebellions.

After a while, the girl turned to her small companion. "I imagine we haven't come across his quarry yet, or else you probably would have said something…"

"Yeah…" he replied, studying the map that showed which rooms had which exhibits in them. "We should be coming up to one of the rooms it might be in, though."

"Okay."

They walked around the corner and into the next room which was filled with suits of armor. They looked at each other and nodded. If there was any room in the museum where Kid would be able to cause a lot of confusion, this was it. They split up to look for the specific piece he said he would take. They carefully inspected the tags around the outside of the room before moving to the middle. Ran was able to move faster because of her height, so she made it towards the middle first. "Hey, Conan-kun! I think I found it!" She blushed when she remembered there were still other people in the room.

Conan joined her, and looked at the tag next to a particularly ornate suit of armor. "Takamori Saigo…" He read the rest of the short description before looking up at her. He followed her outstretched finger to a long sword hanging from the side of the suit. There were actually two swords – a long one and a shorter one, but he figured Kid would go for the longer one, because it looked like it was the more valuable of the two, although the difference was probably not that great. "That's definitely it," he finally commented.

"So… now what," Ran asked.

"I wonder if he told Nakamori-keibu…" Conan mused. He walked over to a nearby bench and clambered up onto it. Ran followed suit, except that she simply sat down next to him. He took out a pencil and started to draw on the map, trying to find different ways that Kid could get in and out of the building, let alone the room. He then remembered the other times he came into contact with the magician-thief, and his straight face turned into a scowl. 'I'm probably going about this all wrong,' he thought. 'This guy is a master of disguise. Even if I find all the possible escape routes, and ask the police to cover them, Kid will still be able to out-maneuver me. I need to get in touch with Nakamori-keibu, so that we don't make any stupid mistakes!'

Ran easily noticed the changes in Conan's mood. "Even if he hasn't, we probably still should… maybe especially if he hasn't… and Shinichi, too…"

Mentioning the name again broke Conan's concentration. "Huh," he asked.

His friend tried to stay patient with him. "Nakamori-keibu and Shinichi… I think we should make sure they know what's going on… Is everything alright?"

"Yeah… Let's get going, I don't think there's anything else we can accomplish by sitting here."

"Okay." She couldn't figure out which part exactly the 'yeah' was in response to, but for the time being it didn't matter. She could ask him again when they got home.

On the way home from the museum, Ran and Conan decided to pay a quick visit to the police station.

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Megure Juzo had no qualms showing his surprise at the kids' request. "Why do you need to get in touch with him? You know he's always busy trying to track down Kid."

"That's exactly why," Ran replied.

Conan took over the explanation. "We have some information that he may not have yet, and we want to give him a fighting chance at actually catching Kid this time."

The inspector found it hard to believe that Kid would contact them directly, seeing as how he had always gone through either Nakamori, the people he would be stealing from, or both. The pair sitting on the other side of his desk had proven themselves to be quite reliable, though, so he pulled out a piece of paper and a pen. "Don't come running back to me if he won't talk to you," he said as he flipped through his rolodex. "Also, don't do anything stupid."

Ran took the paper from him when he finished writing. She and Conan bowed when they left. "Thank you so much."

"You're welcome, and good luck."

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Mouri Kogoro lifted his head off his desk when he heard the door open, and then close again moments later. "Where have you two been all day?"

"At the museum…" Ran replied nonchalantly.

"You guys go there so often… maybe too often…"

Ran's patience with her father began to wane, but she wasn't ready yet to tell him the real reason for their trip. "I don't think there's such a thing as too often, and anyway, we had a very nice time. Boys like Conan-kun are hard to come by…" She motioned for the aforementioned young detective to follow her into the kitchen while she prepared their dinner.

Conan climbed up into one of the chairs at the kitchen table while Ran looked through the refrigerator. After a few moments, he decided to break the silence. "We're gonna have to tell him eventually…" he pointed out.

"We will; after we talk to Shinichi and Nakamori-keibu… How does beef stew sound?"

"Sounds great," the boy exclaimed, using a childish grin to welcome at least a little time that would hopefully prove to be less stressful.

Ran raised her eyebrows in surprise at his outburst, but the expression quickly softened into a smile of her own. "Good… You know, I was thinking… we should wait to talk to Nakamori-keibu until after talking to Shinichi."

"How do you know you'll hear from Shinichi-niichan first?"

"It's been a while since the last time he called…" She smirked. "I'm due for an update."

Conan pretended to study a spot on the table. 'She's right,' he thought. 'It has been a while since I called. I can wait until later, though… after ojisan passes out again.' He smiled at that last thought, amazed at how the man could go from drunk to sober so easily.

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End Chapter 2

A/N: Just a couple things this time: first, my use of the word "Baker" instead of "Beika" was completely intentional. Many places in the DC world are named after places in England, and I thought it would be more appropriate to use the true spelling, rather than going phonetically from English to Japanese and back again. Referencing the museum is probably the only instance where it would be an issue.

Second, Takamori Saigo was the real 'last samurai', so you can bet his suit of armor is incredibly valuable (just as a frame of reference, since everything Kid steals is valuable).


	3. Allow Me to Fill You In

Before I begin, I'd like to apologize. Then again, I'm not really sure why I need to keep repeating myself like this… but it's not very nice what I keep doing to you all by holding onto finished chapters. Unfortunately, I've barely made any progress on chapter 4 at the time of posting this one, so I don't really know how long it will be until my next update…

At any rate, please let me know if this story is good, and if I should keep going with it, because my best work is on things that I feel a deep connection to the topic, and this one didn't quite hit my typical comfort mark.

PS. If there's any confusion, I _still_ don't own DC, and after all this, I'm not really sure why anyone would think I did. :P

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Chapter 3: Allow Me to Fill You In

After dinner, Conan left the apartment for a while, making the excuse that he was going over to visit Professor Agasa. Thinking more carefully about what he told Ran, though, he realized that it would probably be a good idea to go over there anyway. A few minutes later, he arrived at his destination, and his friend came to the door to let him inside.

"How are you doing, Shinichi-kun? Didn't you mention something about your friends leaving for camp yesterday?"

"Yeah. In all honesty, though, I think it'll be nice to spend some time apart from them."

"Does Ran know you're here?"

"She certainly does. I originally told her I was coming here just as an excuse, but then I figured it would probably be a good idea to come over anyway…"

"Ah, okay. Well, you know where I'll be if you need me."

"Thank you." Conan sat down the couch, adjusted his voice-changer bowtie to his 17-year-old voice, and dialed a number on his cell phone.

A female voice answered after three rings. 'She must have been busy with something, to have waited that long…' Shinichi thought.

"Hello," the voice asked.

"Hi, what's up?" He answered the question with another.

"Shinichi!"

"Yup, that's me." He smiled because even though she knew he would be calling, she was still surprised.

"But… How did you know?"

"Huh?"

"How did you know to call me?"

"I dunno… I…" He would have continued, except that he found himself interrupted.

"Shinichi… something important has come up, and since you're still away, I was hoping you'd let Conan-kun and me handle it," she said hesitantly, knowing how he gets about his cases.

"Well, why don't you tell me what's going on, and we'll see," he suggested.

"Okay…" She proceeded to recount the events of the last two days to him, including a recitation of the riddle.

Upon hearing it repeated out loud, Shinichi came to a stark realization. "Hold on a sec! The first honor isn't the longer sword, it's the shorter one!"

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"It used to be that when samurai began training, the first sword they were given was a shorter one, a wakizashi. Only as they became more experienced would they be able to use a full-length katana…"

"I'll be sure to pass that along when Conan-kun comes back from Professor Agasa's house."

Shinichi winced, but let it slide as if it were normal to talk about himself in the third person (even though he had been doing it for so long that it almost was). "Why don't you let me be the one to talk to Nakamori-keibu? I know he doesn't like me much, but he'll be more likely to listen to me than Conan, I think. I'll make sure he knows who he needs to be cooperating with, okay?"

"Okay… Take care of yourself, Shinichi."

"You too, Ran. Don't let Kid trip you up too easily," he replied. She could hear the smile in his voice. They each pulled their phones away from their ears and disconnected the line. Ran found that warm, fuzzy feeling inside her like she always gets when she talks to Shinichi. The young detective, however, started formulating exactly the best way to breach the subject with the inspector.

Conan sat for a few minutes in silence. He didn't want to talk to Nakamori any more than he thought the inspector would want to talk to him. He knew it had to be done, though, especially because he already told Ran he would do it. He looked down at his bowtie to make sure it was still set to the right vocal range, and then pulled out the piece of paper with Nakamori Ginzo's office phone number written on it.

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"Nakamori."

'It figures he'd still be at the office this late…' Shinichi thought. "Nakamori-keibu? This is Kudo Shinichi."

"What the hell do you want? I'm busy."

"What does 'great world tour' mean?"

The man on the other end of the line was momentarily taken aback. "How do you know about that?"

Shinichi decided it would be better not to answer that right away, that it would serve his purposes more to string him along a little bit. "I've decided to give this case to Ran and Conan, because I'm so busy." The younger detective could practically feel the older one's vein popping out of his forehead in anger, so he laid down his trump card. "By accepting their help, I'm sure you'll have a much better chance of catching him…"

"Do I have to deal with 'Sleeping Kogoro'?"

Shinichi was relieved that the inspector was at least willing to hear him out. "Maybe… I don't know. If you do, it will only be for this heist. I'll make sure Ran knows to somehow make sure of that."

"If she doesn't,_ I_ will."

"Thank you, sir. I'll let them know, and they'll be in touch with you in a day or two." His business finished, Conan closed his cell phone, and went to find the professor.

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The next morning, Kuroba Kaito sat in a booth in one of the small restaurants around the corner from his house. The morning newspaper which sat on the table in front of him didn't have any stories on any of Kid's heists, but he knew that given a few more days, that was bound to change. He sat back with a cup of tea, a goofy grin plastered across his face at the thought of the plans that were already in the works. It was probably going to be very expensive, but he had a list of places where the Pandora gem might be located, and this was as good a time as any to go looking for it. He was so absorbed in his plans, that he didn't notice his childhood friend walk up to the table… in an apron.

"Kaito-kun!"

The magician returned to the real world. "Huh? Oh, Aoko-chan, I thought you'd be at your summer job," he said with a smirk. He knew exactly which buttons to push to get the desired reactions out of the girl, and like so many times before, she took the bait. In a matter of seconds, she had a mop waving in his face.

"This _is_ my summer job, for your information! Not like you would know, with your high-paying magic gigs."

"You can be my assistant…"

"As if!" Aoko's anger had grown so much that she was now poised to have the mop actually make contact with her friend's head, which caused him to do the first thing that came to mind – get up and run.

"Aoko-chan!"

"What?"

"I didn't just come here to pick on you."

That caught the girl off guard. She stopped chasing him, and folded her arms across her chest. "Okay, then why did you?"

He turned around to face her. "I just wanted to let you know that I made plans for the summer. I won't be around much after the solstice, until school starts again."

"Okay." With that, she went to put the mop away and get back to work.

'Heh, that was easy,' Kaito thought as he left the restaurant.

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Not more than an hour later, Ran and Conan found themselves in Nakamori Ginzo's office. "Thank you for agreeing to meet with us," they said, bowing.

"Kudo seemed to think you had information for me."

Ran pulled the envelope out of her purse and proceeded to fill the inspector in on their progress over the last couple days, while Conan interjected with the details she forgot. When they finished, Nakamori looked at them with a confused expression. "Where's the rest of it," he asked.

"The rest of what?"

"The rest of the riddle… The copy he sent to me had another part to it…"

"That was all we got," Conan replied. "But I also have a copy of the map of the museum, which I marked up with possible entry and exit points he could use. It's not quite complete because I realized part way through that I was probably going about it all wrong. Even if I suggested that you ask your men to guard all of them, it would only slow him down a little bit, not stop him. That's why I asked Shinichi-niichan to get us this audience with you."

Unlike Ran, the older man was not quite used to Conan's seriousness. Once he regained himself, though, he pulled his copy of Kid's note from the top drawer of his desk. The pair recognized the first section of the text as a copy of their own, but were surprised when they looked further down the page.

_When the two towers of the sand stand together under the sun, east shall meet west and the first rumble of thunder will be heard._

"Any ideas," he asked after the younger detective looked back up from the sheet.

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End Chapter 3

A/N: There you go! Next time, if I get to writing, will be the beginning of the action. And, there's a twist in the works that neither Shinichi nor Nakamori-keibu factored into the equation!


	4. Masters at Work

Hi everyone! Sorry it took so long for this update, things have been busy. Anyway, you guys are actually being rewarded this time with a little bit of a longer chapter! Also, it's kinda funny, my friend SailorRanger and I were talking about our respective anniversaries of when we first started publishing on here, and mine is actually today, January 19th /throws party/. Ahem…

Just for good measure, all standard disclaimers are still in effect, including the one about the riddles – I didn't write them, SailorRanger did /grins/.

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Chapter 4: Masters at Work

Conan woke up early on the morning of June 20th. His body felt like it could stay laying down for a much longer time, but his mind was wide awake with thoughts of what the day might bring. He looked over at the clock, to see that it was still only 7:45 am. He stood up, made sure his glasses were still on his face, and made his way down to the kitchen.

Ran turned away from the stove when she heard his small footsteps enter the room. "Ohayo, Conan-kun," she said in her best attempt at sounding cheerful.

Conan stretched, trying to get his body's level of wakefulness to match that of his brain. He yawned. "Ojisan isn't up yet, is he?"

She shook her head. "Nope. I wrote him a note, in case we leave before he gets up." Conan scowled at the differences in their temperaments, attributing it to the exercise the taller girl got every day from practicing karate. "It's actually good that you're up early, because now we don't have to rush to get out of here in time," she added.

Conan went out into the hallway to pick up the morning paper. When he brought it back, he opened it up to look for something very particular. Down at the bottom of the page of national news, he found the article. 'Good,' he thought. 'Nakamori is keeping up his end of the plan. No one except for the people involved will suspect that there's anything different about this heist.'

Ran came over with the food, and looked over his shoulder. "Hey, there's the article," she said.

"Yeah…"

"Do you think everyone will be ready?"

"We're as ready as we can be. He's tricky, remember? He once tried to impersonate you."

"I remember… Hey! Maybe I'll get to see his face this time! Then I can tell Sonoko about it…"

Conan sat back with an exasperated look on his face. He remembered the first time he met Kid after being shrunk. Kid was planning on stealing the Suzuki family's Black Star pearl. Ran's friend, Suzuki Sonoko, had come to her to see if her father, the great detective Mouri Kogoro could capture the phantom thief. She didn't want the police to take care of it, because she wanted to see Kid's face, imagining in her mind that he would be someone handsome like Harrison Ford.

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Nakamori-keibu met the pair inside the doors to the museum and gave them each an entrance pass. "You two are here on official business," he whispered. "So I asked them to just let you have these for today." He looked at his watch. "There's still some time before you need to get into position." They expressed their gratitude at his generosity, and walked off toward the armor room.

Not long after Ran and Conan had already gone into the next room, another man approached the inspector, who also gave him a day pass into the museum. "The other two are already here," Nakamori explained. "You may go join them."

"Nah, that can wait. It's been a while since I've been here, I think I'd like to look at some of the art before we have to start."

"Well, don't take too long. There's less than an hour left."

The other man held up one of his hands in a 'thumbs-up' gesture. "Gotcha."

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Conan and Ran sat on the same bench they had utilized the last time they were there. Everything around them looked normal, with visitors observing the different pieces of armor. They knew that every other person in the room was one of Nakmori's officers, though, and that comforted them a little bit.

Conan looked at his watch, and then up at Ran. It was getting close to the appointed time, and he could see the apprehension clearly on her face. He placed his hand on top of hers, which drew her attention down to him. "I'm fine, Conan-kun. I just get a little nervous every time I remember who it is we're dealing with." He nodded, even though he could tell she wasn't telling him the whole truth.

Suddenly, someone's entrance into the room drew her eyes back up, and over his head. Conan decided to wait to turn around until she identified him as friend of foe. She raised her hand and waved to the newcomer. "Hattori-kun, what brings you here?"

Conan stiffened momentarily in surprise at the introduction of the other high school detective.

"You mean you don't know," the Osakan teen asked. He continued with a grin when he received responses in the negative. "Well, I knew you'd be here…see?" He held out his copy of Kid's riddle. "The only thing I couldn't seem to figure out was why he delivered it to me…" Ran and Conan noticed that the page had both parts on it – the part they were sent, and the part that had not been included.

Conan turned back to Ran. "Can I talk to Heiji-niichan for a minute or two?" She nodded and stood up to go look at one of the suits of armor.

As soon as she was out of earshot, Shinichi turned his wrath on the Great Detective of the West. "How is it that both you and Nakamori got a copy of the whole riddle, while mine had half of it missing!"

Heiji shrugged. "You should know that better than anyone, Kudo. Everyone knows you're a little reckless, especially when it comes to solving cases. You've already met Kid-san at least once, so he knows what you're like, too." Conan scowled, but the taller man continued anyway. "He probably wanted to make sure everyone gets included in his little farce. The more people, the more confusion, and the better chances of all three of us having a little fun."

"Don't you mean all four… no, all five of us having fun?"

"Nakamori would never admit that chasing that phantom thief is fun… and Ran-chan is usually happy as long as she knows that you're safe… I imagine that she would not consider chasing him to be a safe activity, so three is the right number."

Meanwhile, one of the museum's janitors pushed his cart through the next room. 'It's almost time. The actors are getting into their positions,' he thought with a smile.

-----------

Clocks struck noon half a minute after Nakamori walked into the armor room, but nothing happened. The only person in the room that they knew wasn't on Nakamori's staff was on the museum's staff – one of the janitors. He stopped with a feather duster for a few seconds at each suit. They all watched him suspiciously out of the corners of their eyes, not quite understanding why he worried them so much.

Heiji nudged Conan. "There's something about that guy I don't like…" When the janitor made his last stop at Takamori Saigo's armor, they knew for certain.

"Don't say anything," Conan said so that only he, Heiji, and Ran could hear, "but I'm pretty sure that most museums don't have their maintenance people go around until after hours, once everyone has gone." The other two gave a slight nod, showing full comprehension of his unstated meaning.

Conan looked over to where the inspector was standing. Heiji wasn't kidding, the man was sweating bullets. It was almost comical to the point where he nearly burst out laughing, but he held himself back remembering the task at hand. Maybe there was more to this than just a few good heists. 'Duh,' he thought. 'This is Kid we're talking about here!' He started to walk towards the man he didn't recognize.

"Conan-kun!"

Heiji held his arm out in front of her. "Don't worry, he's not in any real danger yet. It's time to watch a master at work."

'A master,' Ran thought questioningly, turning back to the man beside her. 'You do know that Conan-kun is only seven years old, right?'

He felt her eyes on him, and turned his attention away from the action for a moment. He then realized he probably let something slip that he shouldn't have, and tried desperately to think of something to cover it up. "Do you disagree? I mean, he _has_ dealt with this guy before…"

"I guess you may be right…"

Heiji nodded, and they both turned back to watch the action.

Conan walked right up to the janitor. In his best kiddy voice, he made sure he was speaking just loud enough for the entire room to hear. "Gee, mister, you're here early! I always thought most museums waited until all the visitors went home to start the real maintenance work…" In a much quieter voice, the level of which frustrated everyone else in the room, he explained, "There's no use hiding anymore, Kid-san."

Every pair of eyes turned when the man started laughing. "That's very good, little detective!" In an instant, he pulled up a large piece of cloth out of the pushcart and over his head. When it came back down, he was no longer wearing his slightly dusty jumpsuit, rather a top hat and a white suit with the cloth attached to it like a cape. He adjusted his monocle. "But tell me, where is Kudo Shinichi? I know who I invited, and it didn't include some snot-nosed brat."

Ran decided she'd had enough after that last comment. "Shinichi isn't coming. He's still too busy, so I asked him if Conan-kun and I could take this case. And anyway, Conan-kun isn't a snot-nosed brat, he's a genius!"

'Thanks…I think…' Conan thought, without letting it show on his face.

Kid shrugged. "That's a shame… well, to each his own, I guess. In the mean time, I fear I must make my exit."

Conan could see Nakamori out of his peripheral vision. When the inspector started to move towards them, he shot the man an almost-death glare, which didn't go unnoticed by Kid. Without words it said, "That wasn't part of the plan. Stay back, I can handle this myself."

The magician-thief couldn't help but show his amusement at the whole situation. "Oh, my. You two are actually trying to work together? Well, I do hate to break this up, but I really should be going."

"But he didn't take the sword yet…" Ran whispered to Heiji.

Heiji shook his head. "The artifact is important, but it's not as important to Nakamori as catching Kid is. Kid knows this, so we'll see if he actually does take it or not."

Kid exploded one of his smoke bombs, and in the same moment Nakamori shouted out an order to his officers to try to catch him. Conan put a hand up to his head in a sign of frustration, and went back over to where Ran and Heiji were still sitting. "It's not worth planning anything if he's not gonna follow it," he sighed. As the smoke cleared, they could see the pile of plainclothes officers. Kid was probably in there somewhere, but Shinichi didn't have the patience to even try figuring out which one he was. It would be better to wait until things calmed down, and then see who took the janitor's cart out of the room. It didn't matter to him if the inspector left before that happened. Who would care, except Nakamori himself?

Shinichi had just made an executive decision, and Heiji fully intended to find out what was going through the Great Detective of the East's mind. "What's the deal," he asked.

"It's no wonder Nakamori's always so frustrated with this guy. To Kid, this is all a game. He works hard to keep himself interested."

"Keeping himself interested… gee, that personality trait sounds familiar…"

Conan just glared, while Ran looked on in amusement. 'The two of them are always at it,' she thought. 'I bet this is the way Heiji would act around Shinichi, too.' She started chuckling softly, which caused the pair's discussion to stop.

"What's so funny," they asked in unison.

"I was just thinking about how Hattori-kun would probably act like this around Shinichi, too…"

As if they were one person, Heiji and Conan's eyes went wide, and then they quickly changed the expressions into smiles. "Around Kudo? Heh, heh… yeah, you're probably right…" Heiji replied. Conan simply nodded in agreement.

After another minute or two, things started quieting back down in the room. Most of the smoke was gone, and Nakamori sent his officers home. The three teenagers (although one didn't look it) approached his distraught form.

The inspector was mumbling angrily to himself, but stopped when he noticed their proximity. Instead, he raised his voice, using more polite language. "He got away again! And he took the sword with him!"

Conan looked around while the other two attempted to comfort the older man. The janitor's bin was still there, next to the targeted suit of armor. His eyes traced over to where the swords hung at the side of the suit. In the place of the wakizashi, there was now a flower with a note attached to it. He unfolded the page and read it. "Hey, guys… Would anyone like to confirm some suspicions?" He held up the note so that they could all read it.

_Ladies of green passion, set in a golden prison. In the Forbidden City shall an idol be blinded, loosing the storm waters. When the music surges and the stars shine brightest, in the deepest shadows will I strike next._

_Signed, Kaito Kid_

"Let's go back to my office and make photocopies of this," Nakamori reluctantly suggested.

-----------

End Chapter 4

A/N: So, that's it for now. If you hadn't noticed, the third man to walk in and talk to Nakamori was in fact Heiji… and the heist was short on purpose – I can't take up all the interesting action sequences so close to the beginning, after all!

PS. You guys are too smart for me! When SailorRanger sent me the first riddle, I just copied and pasted it into the document without thinking much about what it actually said… I knew what it was about because we had talked about it, and that seemed to be enough for me. Several days later, the "east meets west" parallel dawned on me, whereas a number of you had caught it right off the bat. He wrote it that way on purpose, so that I would have to include Heiji (I had been hesitating), and I didn't realize it until right before posting/hangs head/ Well, at least I got it in time for this chapter, ne?


	5. So Who's With Me?

Long time no see, minna-san! I was just looking at my reviews, and it looks like the first one from chapter four was on January 21st… has it really been that long since my last update? Shame on me! It's really amazing, I got started with all this online stuff because I had practically no real-world life. Now, I can't seem to keep up with it (quite literally – I have a lot of update notifications in my inbox, piled up, that I haven't looked at yet), because real-life is taking over. I guess that might be a good thing, though… right? At least I'm not constantly holed up in my room like the stereotypical otaku… only sometimes… okay, I'm gonna quit talking like that while I'm ahead. Luckily, I've already tried to start chapter 6, so hopefully it won't be like pulling teeth, like it was this time.

As always, I don't own Detective Conan, Magic Kaito, Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego, or the riddles I use. DC and MK belong to Aoyama-sensei, the game show version of Carmen Sandiego belongs to PBS, and the riddles belong to my good friend SailorRanger.

* * *

Chapter 5: So Who's With Me? 

"So, Hattori-kun, where are you staying tonight," Ran asked as they were leaving the police station.

Heiji shrugged. "I hadn't really thought about that. I figured I'd just head back home for tonight so that I can get some things together, and let Kazuha know what the deal is." Conan had been studying the new riddle, but stopped abruptly when the taller man made that last admission. Both he and Ran turned and stared at him, to which the Great Detective of the West started blushing. "Arg! It's not like that, and you know it!"

Conan was having too much fun. "Oh really? Then why are you blushing so much?"

Heiji refused to dignify that question with an answer, so instead he decided to turn the tables a little bit. "What about your girlfriend, Conan?"

Now it was the smaller detective's turn for his face to redden. "This is not the time or the place, Hattori!" He changed to a whisper. "Especially when the only woman who could ever come close to that description is walking right next to us."

"Oh, I think it is. After all, turnaround is fair play…" He then changed to a whisper as well. "Especially when I just got you so mad that you slipped, and called me 'Hattori', instead of 'Heiji-niichan'." He started laughing when Conan's eyes momentarily widened.

Ran cleared her throat to regain their attention. "I don't think you should be traveling tonight. I also don't think one day will make that much of a difference. Why don't you come back with us? We could set up the couch or something…"

The two detectives looked at each other. Conan glared, so Heiji accepted the invitation.

* * *

Kogoro looked up from his newspaper when the trio entered the room. "Where have you been all day… and what is he doing here?" 

"We were at the museum, waiting for Kaito Kid, but he got away," Ran explained. "Hattori-kun showed up to help. The reason he's here, is because I didn't think it was a good idea for him to travel back to Osaka tonight, and he should wait until tomorrow. In the mean time, we have another riddle to work on." She went to her room, and the other two went to Conan's room, to put their stuff down.

"Hey, Kudo, wanna work on the riddle after dinner tonight," Heiji asked.

"Might as well, since you're already here…" He punched the floor. "Damn that Nakamori! My plan would have worked, if he'd bothered to follow it all the way to the end!"

Heiji raised his eyebrows. "You sure about that?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

They were once again interrupted, this time by a knock at the bedroom door. Ran poked her head through the opening. "It's just me. You know, guys, I can hear you all the way down the hall. Conan-kun, you shouldn't let Hattori-kun get under your skin so easily. If you do, the summer will end up feeling that much longer… Why don't you two come down and help me get dinner ready?"

"Exactly how much did you hear," Conan asked.

She smiled. "Just the last part… but isn't that enough?"

The two detectives stopped holding their breath, and followed her back downstairs.

* * *

Kuroba Kaito sat on his bed, holding the wakizashi of Takamori Saigo. He turned it over several times, inspecting it as if he was looking for something very specific. After a few minutes, he sighed and set it down. "I didn't really think it would be on there… I've checked that museum so many times, and not a single piece held anything remotely resembling it. Oh, well… it wasn't a total loss, I was able to get the three detectives together." He smiled broadly at that last part. "We'll see what happens." 

His mother's voice shook him back into reality. "Kaito, dinner's ready!"

* * *

Nakamori Aoko was bringing dinner to the table when she heard her father come through the front door. She greeted him with a hug, but didn't say anything for fear that his ugly facial expression wouldn't be the only way that the same short temper that she had inherited would find to show itself. He took her silence as an opportunity to start ranting about Kid, Conan, Heiji, and anything else that came to mind. 

"Was it really that bad to work with the two of them," she asked.

The inspector shot a look in her direction. "At first, it looked like I had no choice, but once the plan went into effect, I honestly thought the little brat was gonna screw it up, and the bigger brat wasn't making a move to do anything about it!"

"So… what are you going to do?"

He rested his forehead in his palms. "I don't know. I'd like to just drop them like a bad habit, but something tells me Kid won't let me do that."

In other parts of the city, three teenage boys and one teenage girl sneezed.

* * *

Ran looked at the two boys sitting at the kitchen table cutting vegetables. It had caught her by surprise when they all sneezed at the same time. "I hope we're not all coming down with something…" she said. 

"Gee, I hope not," Conan exclaimed. 'Nah… the chances of us all sneezing in the exact same instant are so slim, it's almost more likely that someone was talking about us…' He sat silently for a few moments, and then burst out laughing. "I bet it was Nakamori-keibu!"

"Talking about us," Heiji asked. "You do know that's just an old wives' tale… don't you? And if it is right, how can you be so sure it was him, and not Kid?"

Conan shrugged. "I don't know… it just makes more sense my way…"

Ran brought serving dishes full of food to the table. "Okay, boys, let's put the mystery solving on hold while we eat… Dad! Dinner's ready!" She took the cut vegetables and put them on a plate with a cup of salad dressing.

They sat for most of the time eating in silence, until Kogoro decided to break it. "So, what's this riddle you brought back with you," he asked.

"Dad!"

Heiji looked at her. "No, it's okay Ran-chan. I suppose that the more heads working on this, the better off we are. Ne, Conan-kun?"

Conan hesitated, remembering Nakamori's expression of distaste at the idea of having to work with the 'Great Detective' Mouri Kogoro. For the time being, though, he supposed it couldn't hurt. "Uh… yeah. But I think I agree with Ran-neechan about waiting until after dinner to get started. I guess we could explain a little of the background though…"

They went through the entire story again for the benefit of the older man, leaving out the part about how it was originally Shinichi who was supposed to have taken the case.

* * *

They stayed around the table for a while after the dinner dishes were cleaned up. Conan took out his copy of the new riddle and opened it up so that everyone could see it. "There's one part in here that doesn't really match the rest," he pointed out. 

Heiji shook his head. "I think there's actually two parts that don't match… but one of them kinda goes with something from the first one, so it actually is spoken for…"

It took another minute and a half for Kogoro to catch on to which lines they were talking about. When he finally did, though, the other three weren't exactly surprised at the next thing to come out of his mouth. "I know! Music means concert, and Okino Yoko-san is giving her next concert one week from today!"

"Dad, you can't be serious…"

Conan sighed. 'Leave it to Ojisan to come up with something completely off-base.'

Heiji stood up suddenly and put on his jacket and ball cap. "Where are you going, Hattori-kun," Ran asked.

"Well, as nutty as it sounds, the old man may have something… but in order to know for sure, I need a computer."

Conan jumped off his chair. "I'm coming with you."

* * *

Heiji looked around before resuming the conversation. "So, Kudo, where's the closest internet café?" 

Conan's eyes searched the taller teen's face. "Wouldn't it be easier to just use Professor Agasa's computer? Oh… never mind… I forgot that he always has other things running on that machine, and doesn't even use the internet often enough to make it worth having. There's a library that's closer than the internet café, but it might be closed for the night already." They kept walking until they found a place with internet-ready computers that they could use. This time, Heiji took out his copy of the riddle, since Conan had left his with Kogoro.

"Hey Kudo… you think that as long as we're here, we should figure out the rest of it too?"

"Sure. The sooner we know the details, the more time we have to plan… gotta love search engines…" His hands flew over the keyboard, asking the machine to find information on the keywords of Kid's message.

In the mean time, Heiji decided it would be more worth his time to do a little searching of his own. He found another computer and started investigating Kogoro's supposedly off-the-mark outburst. He turned his monitor around to face Conan. "Hey, Kudo, guess what? Believe it or not, the old man might have actually been on to something…"

The smaller boy sweatdropped. "You're kidding me, right?"

Heiji shook his head and pointed at the screen. "Take a look." The screen showed a page from Okino Yoko's official website.

"Okay… so she's giving a concert next week… so what?"

"It's the only thing that makes sense with the clue about the music… and besides, I also looked up a box office site that says she's the only one giving a concert in Japan between now and then."

Shinichi tried to internalize the information. "It couldn't be sooner, because that wouldn't give Kid enough time to prepare… and it doesn't really make sense for it to be later either, because that's too long of a delay." He sighed. "I can't believe I'm agreeing with one of Ojisan's crazy ideas… but at least now we have it narrowed down to a specific day."

"Right. So what were you able to find?"

"I typed in some of the important words from Kid's message into the search engine. Apparently, he was being serious when he said 'great world tour,' because the Forbidden City is a place which used to be a royal palace… in _China_…" He rested his chin in one palm. "I wasn't able to figure out what the target is, though…"

"That's okay, we have some time. Why don't we call it a night?"

Conan looked back to his monitor, and reluctantly turned the machine off.

* * *

The next morning after breakfast, Kogoro, Ran, Conan, and Heiji went down to the police station to impart on Nakamori-keibu the new information. Nakamori looked at Kogoro, and then at the man's daughter. "What's he doing here? I thought I said…" 

She cut him off before he could finish the thought. "Whether or not you're willing to believe it, keibu, he provided the boys with some information about this next riddle. Isn't that right?" Conan and Heiji simply nodded, waiting to see what the inspector's reaction would be.

Nakamori grumbled inaudibly, and then started talking while trying to stay as calm as possible. "You're forcing me to be the one to take action? Fine." He turned his attention back to the other man. "Mouri-san, I do not want you here. Even though you had one lucky clue, I am of the strong opinion that in the end you will be more of a hindrance than help." Conan and Heiji looked at each other with their eyebrows raised, while the he continued. "I'd appreciate it if you'd leave now."

Kogoro couldn't believe his ears. "What? I'm the famous meitantei, Mouri Kogoro! You can't do this to me!"

"I'm well aware of who you are, I can do this, and I am. If you do not agree to leave on your own, I will have to bring someone in to help you."

At this point, Ran decided she'd had enough. "You've got a lot of nerve, talking to my dad that way! Come on, guys, let's go." She and Kogoro stood up and started to move toward the door. The other two stayed seated. "Hattori-kun, Conan-kun, aren't you coming?"

The two high school detectives looked at each other, communicating without actually saying anything. "We'll be right behind you," Heiji said while Conan once again just nodded.

Ran wondered what they were up to, but figured they knew what they were doing, and guided her father out the door.

As soon as they were sure the pair was out of listening range, the two boys turned back to the inspector. "We still want in on this, whether the two of them are involved or not," Heiji said.

"Somehow, that doesn't really surprise me. However, I'm not sure if I can let you do that."

Conan jumped up in the chair he'd previously been sitting in, leaning over onto the desk. "Why not? Just because you've been chasing this guy the longest doesn't mean that you have the market cornered on it! He sent his note to Shinichi-niichan, who left the case in _my_ hands, and I intend to see it completed!" He sat back down when he felt Heiji's hand on his shoulder.

A vein on Nakamori's forehead continued to throb. "If you're finished, I'd be more than happy to explain why I'm doing this."

Heiji glanced down to make sure his friend was alright. The younger-looking boy opted to make it seem like he had found something on the desk to be incredibly interesting. "Yes sir," he said.

"Fine. First off, the last heist didn't go particularly well."

"That wasn't my fault…" Conan objected.

"We obviously don't work well together."

"You didn't even give me a solid chance!"

"And you," Nakamori pointed at Heiji, "didn't even lift a finger to help!"

Now Heiji was steaming a little bit. "Hey! You cannot place any of the blame on me, I didn't even know what the plan was! The best I could do with the information I had, was to act as a decoy and let Conan do his thing… which is more than you were able to do…"

The last part made Nakamori even more furious, but he came to the conclusion that it would be in his best interest to let it slide. "What about the girls?"

"Huh?" The two high school detectives floundered around for a bit before Conan said "Oh, I'm sure they'll be fine while we're gone… heh, heh…"

"That's not what I meant, and you know it."

"Perhaps…" Heiji said. "Are you ready to go, Conan? We don't want to keep Ran-chan and Mouri-san waiting." Conan nodded. They bowed on their way out the door, leaving a very frustrated inspector to try to figure out what was really in his best interest.

* * *

Ran and Kogoro were waiting by the station's front door when the boys found them. 

"So, what did you guys talk about after we left," Ran asked.

"Actually, the sharing of the information didn't rest on whether you were in the room or not," Heiji explained. "Unfortunately, it didn't even get to that point, because he was more interested in expressing his dissatisfaction at how things went yesterday."

"That's a shame… what are you going to do?"

Conan masked his displeasure by making his voice sound about half way between seven-year-old and too-serious. "We haven't really decided yet, but we know we have options, since _we're_ the ones who've gathered some information already."

"I can't believe he kicked me out of his office," Kogoro exclaimed.

"Um… actually dad, before the first heist… he told us he didn't want to work with you…"

"What?"

"Anyway," Heiji said, "since we know what the score is, I think I should be getting back to Osaka…"

Ran shot him a look that said 'that might not be a good idea quite yet', but quickly changed it to a softer look of understanding. "Let's go back to the apartment so you can get your stuff."

A little while later, they were saying goodbye. Heiji started making his way down the stairs to the street, when Conan called out "See you in a few days!" Ran and Kogoro gave the boys matching strange looks, not quite willing to believe that they were planning on going anyway, despite the fact that Nakamori didn't want them there.

* * *

End Chapter 5 

A/N: Wow… a long one (for me)… I'm not sure if this will be a typical occurrence or not, but I was hoping to more-or-less have it be one chapter for the set up, and one chapter for the heist. It was different for the first one, because I had to have a little more for the exposition, and I'll probably have an extra one at the end too.

So, here's my big dilemma: even though I've started chapter 6, I can't quite decide who exactly should chase Kid. Of course it has to be Nakamori, Conan, and Heiji… but I'm not sure who else to include. Suggestions are more than welcome! You can be sure they'll get heard, especially because of how long it took for me to get this chapter ready (o.o')… anyway…

Guess that's it for now, catch ya later!


	6. The Gathering Point

/poses/ My triumphant return! Ahem… I know it's been a while, and I have good (personal) reasons for leaving you all hanging. However, I finished this chapter today! I'm back in the mood for more now, although we'll see what happens and how far I get before I need to take another break. Hopefully, I'll be able to take this through to the end now without too many interruptions.

As always, I don't own Detective Conan, Magic Kaito, or anything else that might be referenced for my story.

-----------

Chapter 6: The Gathering Point

At about 10 o'clock in the morning on June 24th, there was a knock on the door of the Mouri Detective Agency. Ran went to answer it.

"Hey, Ran-chan! What's up? Is Conan around?"

"Hattori-kun! Uh… yeah, I'll go get him, why don't you come in. You know… I wasn't really expecting you to come back, at least not so soon…" She went to call Conan to come downstairs, while Heiji took a seat on the sofa.

"Heiji-niichan," Conan said with a little bit of surprise when he entered the room. "Welcome back. Does this mean you were able to figure out what the target is?"

With a look of disappointment, Heiji said "No, and I'm assuming you didn't, either." This was confirmed when Conan shook his head.

"Would you like some tea or something," Ran asked.

"Just water would be fine. I actually came to pick up Conan."

"Pick him up?" It finally dawned on her as she walked into the kitchen. "You guys are really gonna go follow Kid…"

Heiji leaned over and whispered to Conan after Ran left the room. "Go get your stuff together. I already have the tickets. If we leave now, there'll be more time to search the City." Conan nodded and ran back upstairs.

Conan returned to the office/living room five minutes later, to an impatient-looking Heiji and a worried-looking Ran.

"What's wrong, Ran-neechan," he asked.

"You didn't even think about how I'd feel!" She threw her arm up in the air. "You're just gonna run off chasing the one guy that no one can seem to catch, and you didn't even think about how it would affect the people around you! Mou, Shinichi, I could just strangle you sometimes!"

The boys were lucky she didn't notice their shared surprise. "Uh… Ran-chan," Heiji hesitated.

"What?"

"Kudo isn't here…"

The girl looked around, as if coming out of a daze. She plopped down onto the sofa. "That's right… he isn't… but that doesn't mean I'm not mad at you, because I am. How could you do this to me… let alone my father?" She pleadingly looked into Conan's eyes, which made him increasingly uncomfortable.

He tried to play it off with a joke. "Well, you know how he'd react when he sees how much the plane tickets and all the other expenses along the way will cost… heh, heh…"

"As true as that is, I don't think it's very funny," she retorted. "If it was important enough to him, he'd find a way to finance it… I was just hoping to find a way to trick Nakamori-keibu into agreeing to let him accompany us, but so much for that brilliant idea… I can't just leave him by himself all summer, though…" She stared at Heiji with a look that screamed 'threat.' "You had better take good care of Conan, Hattori-kun."

The absence of the honorific suffix caught both boys by surprise. Heiji nodded. "You can be sure of it." He stood up. "Let's go, kid, we don't want to miss the flight."

-----------

Conan watched the ground as they made their way towards the airport. "Ne, Hattori, do you ever get the feeling you're never gonna be forgiven for something you did?"

Heiji rolled his eyes. "Geez, of all the times for you to go soft on me…"

"Well?" When the pint-sized detective got no more responses, he looked up with hurt-filled eyes at the taller boy. "I know you know this isn't something new…"

Heiji shrugged. "Yeah, I do… and frankly speaking, it's getting to me. It really amazes me how well you seem to have done for yourself, seeing as how she's _always_ on your mind…"

"You know what else might amaze you?"

"What?"

"How much I wish she was here right now, so that she could kick your ass."

"Need your girlfriend to fight your battles for you?"

"No! At least, I didn't used to… Damn it, Hattori, why do you always feel the need to pick on me?"

Heiji studied the sky. "Why…" he said after a few seconds. He looked back down at his companion and shrugged again. "I suppose it's just because it's so easy…"

"Oh look, we're here," Conan said abruptly.

"So we are…" Heiji entered the building first, Conan's shorter stride causing him to follow a couple steps behind.

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Kogoro scanned the room when he finally woke up. His daughter was sitting alone at the table, staring at the telephone with a somber look on her face. He felt an eerie silence, as if there was no one else in the apartment. "Where's the brat," he asked.

"He left with Hattori-kun this morning," she replied bitterly.

"Why didn't you go with them?"

"It seemed like they didn't really want me along, and anyway I decided it might be better for me to stay here, so I can keep an eye on you…"

"I appreciate the sentiments, but don't you think at least one of us would be better off going with them?"

"I can't leave you alone here for two months…"

"Two months?"

"Yes, that's why they left without us."

"Cheeky brats… what was the real reason?"

"That's the only one they gave me, dad – that they were sure you wouldn't want to have to deal with all the expenses involved."

Kogoro put a hand up to his forehead. "My G-d! They know me better than I thought they did!" He thought for a few more seconds. "It doesn't excuse their behavior, but they do have a point… Ran, I want you to go with them."

"But dad…"

"Don't argue with me, sweetie. I need to be here in case something comes up. Go. They'll need you, they just don't know it yet."

"What about you?"

"I already told you, I need to stay here. Start getting your stuff together, I'm gonna find out when the next flight to Beijing is. Maybe I can pull some strings… Don't give me that look; you want to go, don't you? Don't worry, even if they decide to not utilize your abilities, you'll still be there with them. You're getting to see the world! Opportunities like this don't come very often!"

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"You know, Kudo," Heiji muttered, "it's a good thing I was able to bribe my father into getting these plane tickets for us. Nakamori still doesn't know we're coming, and I'm not sure we would have been able to get them otherwise, let alone at such a good price…"

Conan nodded. "I'm just glad my parents left the right passport for me the last time they came to visit…"

The pair had no trouble getting through the international flights' security checkpoint. They looked at the list of departing flights and saw that they still had some time before they needed to be at the gate. "Wanna grab a snack before the flight," Heiji asked.

"Sure."

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"Okay, I talked to the travel agent, and they said there aren't any more flights to Beijing today. But, she was able to get you on the one tomorrow," Kogoro explained to his daughter.

Ran fell onto the sofa. "I'm having trouble believing that this is all really happening."

"You care for him, he cares for you… You know, it's amazing you two have been able to keep it a secret from that other detective brat for so long."

"Huh? You mean Shinichi? I guess it just never came up in the conversation all the times we've talked on the phone…" She sighed when she thought about his recent antics. "That guy is so annoying!"

"If he pisses you off so much, why don't you just dump him?"

"How can you even say that, dad?"

"You don't deserve the way he's been treating you, that's all there is to it. You're even getting better attention from our little house guest."

"But… I don't know what I'd do without Shinichi… and it's not fair to tell him something like that over the phone; it's much better done in person. I can be patient a while longer…"

"Suit yourself. I'm just trying to look out for what's best for you."

Ran walked back over to where her father was sitting, and put a hand on his shoulder. "I know dad. Thank you."

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Kuroba Kaito meandered up to the gate and looked out the window to where the plane was sitting. He was dressed casually – there was no need for his school uniform on a trip like this – and he carried a small backpack with his Kid costume in it. There was no way he'd leave something that valuable in the hands of the airline attendants. Satisfied that the aircraft looked how it was supposed to, he walked up to the counter. "Excuse me ma'am, I'm meeting some people here today, could you tell me if they've checked in yet?"

The woman on the other side of the counter looked down at her computer screen. "Sure, what are their names?"

"Nakamori Ginzo, Hattori Heiji, and… Edogawa Conan." He took a deep breath at the recovery from almost saying 'Kudo Shinichi.'

She typed in each name. "They are all booked on this flight, and they all checked in when they checked their baggage at the ticket counter."

"Thank you very much."

"You're welcome."

Kaito turned away from the counter and looked around. Suddenly, he noticed Nakamori sitting off to the side, and his grin grew even wider than normal. He didn't go greet the detective though, there would be plenty of antagonizing from him later and he didn't need it to start now.

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The pair of high school detectives sat at a table in the airport's food court. "You think Kid's here already," Heiji asked his companion of diminutive stature.

"Yeah, probably… if he is on our flight, then I'm sure he's here already."

"You make it sound like he has no other way of getting there…" Heiji took a long drink from his glass of cherry cola.

"He's only human, you know. He just knows a whole bunch of magic tricks and methods of deception. He's gotta go on an airplane, whether or not it's the same one we're on. Hey, do you hear that? I think they're announcing our flight."

Both boys strained their ears to hear over all the other discussions going on around them. "…flight to Beijing is now boarding out of gate…"

"Oh, crap, we gotta get over there," the Detective of the West exclaimed. They cleaned up the debris from their table, and started jogging down the concourse. "We're not gonna make it in time!"

The pair arrived at the gate just as the last few people got in line to board the aircraft. "Now boarding all rows," one of the attendants announced. The detectives took a few seconds to catch their breaths.

"We made it just in time!"

"Yeah… you ready, Ku…Conan-kun?"

Instead of replying, Shinichi handed his ticket to the attendant and started walking down the jetway.

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End Chapter 6

A/N: Aaaannnnd they're off! The immediate future might be kinda obvious, but I also have some surprises in mind for later.

Guess that's it for now, catch ya later!


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